


together burning bright

by howtodrinktapwater



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-19 10:37:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20329744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/howtodrinktapwater/pseuds/howtodrinktapwater
Summary: We soldiered together in the A Shau Valley.  (Companion piece to ‘we’re moving the mountain’)





	together burning bright

**Author's Note:**

> First of all! All of the love that we're moving the mountain has received is mind blowing to me and I want to thank everyone who's commented or kudos'd or just read it and enjoyed it! It makes me super emo but in the best possible way <3
> 
> Also, this is a re-upload of a story that I deleted when I was going to edit something and then decided that it the entire thing was stressing me out so I got rid of it then LIFE HAPPENED and I haven't had a chance to re-upload it until now.
> 
> Warnings: off-screen death of a child

Klaus lands hard on his ass still holding Hazel and Cha-Cha’s stupid briefcase.He locks eyes with someone but before he can ask where the hell he is chaos breaks out.

Klaus figures that it’s just his luck that instead of something nice happening to him after being tortured by two psychos in masks who are way too invested in his brother he is getting _yelled at_ and _given a gun_ and told to go _shoot people._

After he pulls on the pants and shirt that are thrown at him he’s handed a rifle and then he gets yelled at again to get the lead out of his ass because Charlie ain’t going to wait just because he wants to take his own sweet time.

He runs to catch up with the other men and falls into step next to someone who looks like he knows what the hell is going on.

“Hey, where are we exactly?”

The man rolls his eyes.“You new?”When Klaus nods the man sighs, “A Shau Valley, my friendDid they at least tell you how to use that?”

Klaus lets out a nervous laugh but before he can say anything else the men in front of them fall to the ground as more gun fire breaks out.The man Klaus was talking to curses and does the same dragging a wide eyed Klaus down with him.

“Newbie!”The guy shouts to Klaus while letting off a round of bullets, “Best get your shit together!”Klaus looks around in a panic and starts to do what everyone else is doing.All he can think is that this is total fucking bullshit.

Klaus sticks close to his new best friend after the firefight is over.As they’re walking back he tells Klaus that he’s with the 173rd Airborne and Klaus tries to look like he knows what that means.It doesn’t work because he gets a slap to the helmet.

“So we’re in Vietnam?Like, the Vietnam War Vietnam?” Klaus asks.

“Yes,” he says looking at Klaus like he has three heads, “You’re in Vietnam for the war.Did you fall and hit your head?”

Klaus is trying to come to terms with the fact that he’s either in the middle of a really bad, really weird trip or he’s actually in the middle of a warzone and he doesn’t say anything.

“And where are your dog tags?Did you loose them already?”

“I’m…really new?”Klaus tries and gets another knock on the helmet.

When they get back they’re told to rest while they can.Klaus stands awkwardly to the side of the tent - he’s not sure what to do or where to go.Is he supposed to ask?Who does he ask?

Klaus’s new best friend is sitting on a cot smoking, he looks at Klaus and raises an eyebrow.“You doing okay, newbie?” 

Klaus doesn’t know what he does with his face but whatever it is it makes the other man roll his eyes, “They didn’t give you anything?”He gestures to the cots and Klaus shakes his head no.“Come on, I guess I’ll help you get sorted out.”

And he _does._He gets Klaus hooked up with a cot, a rucksack, and everything else he needs.The man introduces himself as Gordon and he’s Klaus’s new favorite person.

Klaus finds out that the 173rd is split into different companies and that their job is to patrol the areas surrounding the Ho Chi Minh Trail and make sure that enemy soldiers don’t make it through.

Klaus is in Bravo company with Gordon.Gordon reminds Klaus of Diego, they both have the same short temper and seem to be frustrated with him 1,000% of the time.It is nice to have a reminder of home especially because he can’t get Ben no matter how hard he tries.

Klaus also learns that patrolling the trail means a lot of walking, a lot of looking, and when they’re unlucky a lot of shooting. 

The majority of the people they do come across are dressed as civilians so there isn’t really anything they can do unless they’re attacked first.

It’s a slow day on patrol, they haven’t ran across anyone for about an hour.

Klaus is walking behind everyone else and shivering.Withdrawal just started hitting him hard last night and he feels like he’s going to die.Or vomit.He wishes that he would just vomit to maybe make the nausea go away.

Klaus hears Sam is joking with Curtis and Mark and he turns around to say something to Klaus when he stops.

Klaus is bent over with his hands resting on his thighs dry heaving.He ends up not puking which somehow makes him feel worse.He waves the guys off when they ask if he’s alright, which they figure gives them permission to start the abuse. 

They’re all teasing him, and he knows that it’s all in good fun, which is what stops him from lashing out.When he was brand new it would make him defensive and mean, until Gordon slapped some sense into him and said that it was because they’re his friends that they’re talking shit about him.

As they get closer to the 173rd’s home base they quite down.Mark reports back what they found (nothing) while Sam and Gordon half hide Klaus from their superior officers.

Later that day Klaus is laying on his cot with his eyes covered by both of his hands trying to breath through the nausea.He’s drenched in sweat and his entire body aches.

“Klaus,” Sam says kicking a leg of Klaus’s cot, “Are you going to make it?”

Klaus feels the jolt of the kick like electricity through his whole body that makes all of his nerves vibrate and his head ache even more.“Dope sick,” he mumbles and is jolted by another kick.

“You are the dumbest white boy I’ve ever met.” Sam tells him, “Why would you keep doing that shit so close to deployment?”Klaus gives them both the finger and feels someone lay something down next to him. 

“Water.”Gordon tells him, “Don’t dehydrate, dumbass.”

After the others start to call him Party. 

A lot of them are impressed that he managed to maintain his habits during basic.While the rest of them were getting yelled for slouching Klaus was, at least to the 173rd, going through training drills, getting the usual verbal abuse, and also _high._

“Fucking shit,” a guy from Delta company tells Klaus, “I almost got killed for getting caught with weed I forgot was in my bag.How’d you manage it?”

“I’m a special kinda guy,” Klaus tells him.

Early one morning they’re woken up by a helicopter flying over head.“One of ours,” Curtis shouts from where he’s looking out of the entrance to the tent.

Everyone waits, tensed up and ready to go, for the command.After a few minutes they all start to relax and drift back into sleep.

Klaus was already awake, laying on his side and trying to stop his teeth from chattering.He’s freezing despite the temperature and he’s the only one using his blanket.Sam is on the cot next to Klaus’s and he glances over before he lies back down and shoots him a look.Then he’s takes his own blanket that he had stashed under his cot and throws it to Klaus.

The blanket lands half on Klaus and half on the floor but Klaus has himself wrapped up in it soon enough.

After that day’s patrols Gordon and Curtis are playing cards and Klaus is laying down with his head half tipped off of the edge of the cot. 

Gordon’s watching him out of the corner of his eye as Klaus uses a folding knife to get rid of some sort of bracelet on his wrist. 

Klaus folds the knife and pockets it, then he stashes whatever he cut off his wrist in his rucksack.Then he falls back onto his cot and massages his temples with the heels of his hand.

Gordon knows part of his problem is that he’s a druggie, but he still can’t put his finger on what is else is so weird about him. 

One morning starts off differently from usual.Their superiors have them line up in formation and then they’re told that the enemy have invaded the south and have taken control of cities, military bases, an whatever else they could.And as soldiers in Uncle Sam’s army they’re going to kick Charlie’s ass.

The next morning they’re lining up for transport getting ready to go get shot at some more.Klaus doesn’t know where or what exactly Hue is, but so far he’s not a huge fan of any of the fighting bits - most of the people are alright - and he doesn’t think Hue is going to be any different. 

He’s nauseous as hell but he’s not sweating or shaking as badly.He is sweating, but so is everyone else, so Klaus guesses that he’s sweating the normal Vietnam amount.

From their place in the line Gordon starts filling Dave in on everything that’s weird about Hargreeves.

“Party’s alright,” Dave tells him.“We’ve been on patrol teams together, and he seems okay.”

Dave is one of the few people here that Gordon can stand and that fact alone stops Gordon from murdering Dave.Especially when Dave looks beyond Gordon to see Klaus and starts smiling.

“No, Dave.”

“What?”Dave asks trying to look innocent.

“No, no, no.Absolutely not.You don’t know him like I do, he’s nothing but a pain in the ass.”

“You only complain like this about people you like, Gordon.”

“He’s weird.He’s got tattoos on his hands.Who does that?”

“I know,” Dave says half smiling at Gordon.

“David.”

Klaus is already in a seat when Gordon passes by him and gives him a tap on the helmet.He doesn’t say anything or try to sit with Klaus, which is fine by him because Klaus thinks that nausea is so bad that he may actually puke.

The bus has been going for about a half hour he when Klaus feels a hand on his shoulder.

“You just get in country?”

Hue, Klaus finds out, is a city that they are trying to get back from the enemy._‘The bad guys’_ Klaus thinks and wonders if he’s ever going to be able to leave the Academy completely behind.

The only good thing about being shot at all of the time is that for the most part it pushes his withdrawal to the back of his mind. 

They’ve been in Hue for a few days when he sees the girl for the first time.He’s sleeping, his cot is in between Dave and Sam and across from Gordon and he’s got his rifle next to him; so he’s about as safe as he can be.He wakes up to the sound of a girl talking and when he opens his eyes a Vietnamese girl who looks about six years old is standing next to his cot.He gasps and sits up with makes Dave wake up.

The girl is talking to him, saying something he can’t understand, but Dave who is looking right at them can’t see her.And she’s got a bullet hole in her neck.

“Klaus, are you alright?”Dave whispers in the half darkness.Klaus looks at him and nods, “Try to get some sleep, okay?”Klaus nods again and lies back down.

The girl is gone the next morning and Klaus is almost able to pretend that it was just a withdrawal hallucination.It’s a slow day, the higher ups are trying to figure out what exactly they need the 173rd to do next.

Gordon and Sam are angrily trying to teach Klaus how to play poker.They’re being over the top on purpose and it has Klaus, Dave, and Mark rolling.

She shows up behind Gordon and it makes Klaus jump and drop his cards.“Har-,” Gordon sighs, “-greeves.”

“Yeah, Party, stop dropping shit.Isn’t it bad enough that you puked every fucking place possible today?”Mark teases shooting a glance at Gordon, “Even on Gordon’s fucking _boots_.”

After that she comes and goes, she’s not like his usual ghosts.She isn’t yelling at him and she doesn’t even look angry at him.She never tells Klaus her name so he starts to call her Huey.

It’s week two in Hue and the 173rd are sweeping a part of the city that has been reclaimed by the Americans looking for North Vietnamese soldiers or Viet Cong.Klaus, Dave, Gordon, and Sam are all on today’s sweep and they stick together.

_‘If only the Umbrella Academy could see me now.’ _Klaus thinks. _‘I’m finally a team player.’_

Huey shows up right beside Klaus and starts talking fast and pointing.“Slow down!I can’t understand you,” he tells her.The other three give him looks.

“Klaus?”Dave asks, putting a hand on his shoulder, “Are you alright?”

Huey is sobbing now, still talking a mile a minute, pointing towards something and trying to grab Klaus’s hand.“Okay!Okay, show me.”Klaus tells her.She takes off running and he jogs after her.

“Klaus!”

“Hargreeves!”

He turns a corner and the other three go running after him.They catch up with him in an alley.Huey has stopped running, and she’s pointing at a partially collapsed building.

“What now?”He asks her.

“What the fuck was that?”Gordon yells at him.

Huey runs over to the destroyed building and she starts to point at the rubble in front of the doorway and then gestures away quickly.Klaus starts to clear the bricks and plaster from the area and Huey starts clapping her hands and jumping up and down.“Alright, alright, calm down,” he tells her.

“What are you doing?!”Sam asks him, Klaus holds up a hand and tells them to help him clear the area.Dave comes over and helps him start moving the rubble, Gordon and Sam watch them for a few minutes.

Gordon takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly through his nose, “Let’s help these two dumbass bastards and then I’m killin’ the scrawny one.”

With all four of them working together they get the doorway cleared in no time.Huey has been anxiously hopping from foot to foot, and when there’s enough room she runs through and Klaus follows her.Dave is close behind him with his gun at the ready.The top floor collapsed into the bottom floor blocking the way out.

Klaus follows Huey into a back room and a brick comes flying at his face.There is a young Vietnamese woman with dried blood smeared across her face.She’s holding a baby and there is another child on a blanket behind her, his foot going in the completely wrong direction.

The woman starts to yell at them and lunges for a knife she has on the table she points it towards Dave slashing the air a few times to let them know that she’s ready to defend herself.Huey runs to her and starts waving her arms and talking rapidly.

“Are you seeing this too?” Sam asks, Gordon and Dave are standing with their mouths hanging open looking at Little Hue.

The woman drops the knife and stares at the girl in front of her.Huey points to Klaus and then the woman nods.She kneels down and tries to hold Huey but she goes right through the girl and they both start crying.

They stare at each other for a long time and then Huey points to Klaus again.The girl turns towards the four soldiers and smiles and waves and then she turns back around and exchanges a few more words with her mother.Then she’s gone.

They take the injured woman and her kids back to camp with them, she’s gripping Klaus’s arm and he lets her.Dave is on her other side further back keeping an eye out, Sam is in back of them holding the little boy, and Gordon leads the way.

After they’ve left the three with medical and they’re out of ear shot Sam turns to Klaus and grabs his arm, “What the **FUCK **was that?!”

Klaus licks his lips and takes a deep breath.“I’m not…I hav-“ he starts and then pauses and tries for humor that is about forty years too early, “I see dead people.”

“What are you fucking talking about?!”

“I can talk to ghosts.”

“We did see a girl did appear out of thin air today,” Dave says.

“A girl who was shot,” Gordon adds.“Did you _do_ that Hargreeves?”

Klaus ignores Gordon’s question, “That was Huey, she’s been hanging around for a while.”

“You named her?!”Sam asks with wide eyes that narrow when he furrows his brow.

“I mean-,” Klaus starts but Sam cuts him off by shoving him back storming away.

Later that night Klaus and Dave are smoking and watching Gordon play solitaire, every now and then asking him why he would make a move so fucking dumb.Sam is on his cot re-reading letters from home and not talking to anyone.

“It was good, what you did for them today,” Dave tells him, Klaus nods and then takes a shaky drag.“It was weird, don’t get me wrong, but it was good too.”

“She was a lot nicer than most of them.”

“Does this happen a lot?” Dave asks him.

“Often enough.”

“How- Why does this happen to you?”

_‘Oh no, he’s nice.’_“Ever since I was born.”

“That must have been rough as a kid.”

“Yeah,” Klaus says thinking about the mausoleum.

“There must have been some pretty bad things you’ve seen.Or been told.I’m sorry.”

_‘Oh no,’_ Klaus thinks, _‘He’s perfect.’_

“Fuck me, Klaus.”Sam tells him the next day, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art the scariest mother fucker in the valley.”

Klaus laughs and Sam claps him on the shoulder. 

The higher ups spin Huey's family’s story as the brave and selfless American troops rescue a mother and her small children after the Viet Cong destroy their home.They fail to mention that it was the Americans who destroyed that block of houses.

It’s the middle of week three in Hue and Klaus still hasn’t gotten used to his rifle.He knows how to shoot it, but that’s the easy part.He doesn’t know how to disassemble and clean it and put it back together.Or what to do if it jams. 

Gordon tells him that he _has_ _to know how _to do that but that he wasn’t going to re-train Klaus in something that he was too busy being a junkie to learn in basic. 

There’s no way Klaus can explain that he never spent one single second getting trained for any of this without him sounding insane.He debates with himself as to whether the Umbrella Academy counts but ultimately decides against it.

Dave offers to brush him up and then he starts teaching Klaus everything once it becomes apparent that Klaus has no clue what he’s doing.They try to get in practice every day, usually during their down time. 

But there was one memorable time when another battalion of Americans fired onto a building that the 173rd had cleared and half of them were suck in a alleyway for five hours waiting to get dug out. 

They’re sitting on the ground between their cots.Klaus has a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and Dave is showing him how to take his gun apart and clean it.He follows what Dave is doing, his hands only shaking a little, but then Dave makes Klaus show him how to reassemble it.It’s clumsy and takes longer than they both know it should.

“I can’t believe they let you through,” Dave tells him referring to his less than stellar soldier skill set.It’s the truth but Dave saying it still hurts Klaus’s feelings.Klaus stays silent and he knows if Ben were around he would accuse Klaus of pouting.Dave doesn’t notice anything out of the ordinary with Klaus’s mood and continues with, “It’s really dangerous for you to be out here if you don’t know about this shit.I can’t believe that they just sent you over.”

Warmth floods Klaus.“It’s kind of a weird story,” he tells Dave honestly.Dave smiles at him and Klaus smiles back then Dave makes him take his rifle apart again.

**Author's Note:**

> History/Explaining Bits:  
In my universe Klaus zaps into Vietnam in the middle of January 1968.
> 
> The Ho Chi Minh Trail was used by the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong to get into South Vietnam.
> 
> The Tet Offensive happens which sends our boys to Hue.
> 
> Also, let's suspend disbelief and say that Gordon and Dave became besties at basic which is why Gordon knows Dave likes guys.


End file.
